Promoting himself as "a new style of leader", Mark Latham yesterday staged his first town-hall meeting with electors, promising there would be many more on the campaign trail and in the event he won government.

"It's a shame, but many politicians seem reluctant to talk to people," he said in a radio broadcast throughout the NSW Central Coast, inviting locals to come to the meeting.

"I want to hear your views - not from advisers, not from pollsters, but straight from you."

Mr Latham, who is being trailed on his NSW regional bus tour by a 30-strong media pack, said the business of politics in Australia was becoming too stage-managed and needed to be returned to the people.

"Getting back to the grassroots of our democracy is very important," he said. "I want to make that a major part of the way I communicate with the Australian people."

Mr Latham staged a two-hour meeting with about 500 locals in the NSW coastal town of Gosford, where he reminisced about playing carpet bowls in the area with his "nana and pop" as a child.

"It won't all be a rose garden," he said of the public meetings strategy. "There will be people coming along, giving me a good old kick in the shins; the Labor Party's been out of office for eight years, obviously we've made some mistakes and done some things wrong."

Yesterday's meeting started with a slight kick in the shins when a spokesman for the local chamber of commerce rose to oppose Labor's plan to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements.

But the crowd, well-stocked with local Labor Party members and unionists, quickly howled down the criticism.

"Have you ever heard of the National Office for the Information Economy?" Mr Latham asked the crowd.

When only two people raised their hands, he told them he was going to abolish the Canberra-based organisation, observing: "I think it needs more than two people to know about it to keep it going."

He also told the crowd that he believed young local men needed more male influences in their lives, as some of them were out of control and had forgotten how to be a part of society. "The value of work and effort is much more important than street-fighting and messing around," he said, to applause.